Devon's Halloween Baptism

 I know that the family is ordained of God. We have to fight for each other. When Steve left on his mission he had no idea how far reaching his choice would be. Hearts have been softened and his influence has been felt directly by my sweet daughter Jessica's family. I would say this is one of the most important Baptism's of Steve's mission and it happened right here at home, he wasn't in physical attendance but I know his whole heart was there. At first Devon wanted Grandpa Todd to both Baptize and Confirm him. But it the truest missionary spirit Todd encouraged him to chose one of the missionaries who had taught him since they don't get to preform many baptisms very often.

 This is the Talk I gave at the baptism:

Devon made the choice today to be baptized. That is a big deal. Lets talk about why this is such a big deal. First of all it’s a choice. Devon’s parents and all his family would love him just the same baptized or not. So it’s a big deal that he is doing this because it’s right for him and not to please anyone but God and himself.

As you grow up Devon you will find that there are those who say they follow Jesus Christ and there are those who show they follow Jesus Christ. Some of those who say it don’t take it into their hearts and live what they say they believe. Today you are not only saying that you want to follow Christ you are showing it. It is really important to do both. You are a very special boy. The power to choose is a big deal and you have parents that support you in making good choices. You made this choice, you choose today to do your very best to spend your life trying to be like Jesus Christ. I promise you that this choice will bring you so much happiness and joy not just today but as you grow and try to be more like Jesus you will feel a special kind of happy strength grow inside of you. Your spirit will become a strong warrior able to resist wrong and shining out to others as an example of the happiness that comes if you live a life seeking to be like Christ. This is what it means to, ‘Take his name upon you.’

Today you will go under the water and come up out of the water. This is to show your faith that you understand that Jesus Christ and all of us will rise from the grave not as zombies, not as mummies but as perfect resurrected human beings. Death is not the end.

Mormon 7:5 Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.  

This is possible because of Jesus Christ’s Atonement. Atonement means ‘one with Christ’. I have found that the best way to become one with Christ is to be Accountable. To be accountable means that when you do anything that is wrong you will stand before those that you have wronged and admit what you have done. It’s not a fun thing to do it feels pretty uncomfortable. Jesus stood accountable for all of us. He understood us, all our pain, from our bad choices and from the bad choices of others. He stood before God and said I will take the punishment for all the wrong doings that Devon Radebe will chose in his life. I will also feel all the pain and sadness that he will feel. He did this for us all. Isn’t it beautiful to think that he understands all our hurt and all our pain. God is the only one who really knows what it is like to feel the way you feel about anything and everything. It is the greatest Miracle of all Miracles that he could take our punishment and make a way for us to be forgiven.

Each Sunday when you take the Sacrament you are standing Accountable before God. It’s important for you to understand that Accountability is an important part of repentance. It’s the part that shows everyone what is really most important to us and who matters most to us. For example: If you have done something wrong you need to do all you can to make it right. In the government this is called restitution. If you hurt Kiana you need to do more than say sorry right. First of all you need to be accountable, tell your Mom or Dad that you know you hurt her and that it was wrong. Then you have got to do something to show or make it as right as you can. If you ruined her lego creation you could make it right by giving her some of your favorite pieces to build with. Or helping her to rebuild what you destroyed.

When we chose to be Baptized it’s because we know that we can’t be perfect so we do it to show what really matters to us is accepting Jesus Christ’s gift of  saving us. Baptism shows everyone what is really most important to us and who matters most to us. Today you stand before God and you are Accountable you admit that you can not make it alone and you admit that you know you are going to make some mistakes. You also promise to make it right. The restitution you offer is to always remember him, to take his name upon you, you are a Christian, and to keep his Commandments. You will do this today and each Sunday when you take the sacrament. I challenge you to say a prayer either Saturday night or Sunday morning. This will be a special weekly prayer a prayer that you say to prepare to take the sacrament. Pray for help, forgiveness and tell God what is in your heart. Make him your best friend and team mate, tell him what you want, what you need and prepare yourself to feel again the newness and the joy that you feel today as you are baptized. You can feel joy that comes from the clensing power of Baptism each week as you take the sacrament. But it requires effort. You can’t just say it you must show it. Be totally honest with God in your prayers. He will help you to face all of the battles of life. He will help you to find the strength to stand Accountable as a Represtentative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

 

He lives Devon. I know this, not because I have seen him or any angels for that matter. I hope for it and I have acted on that hope and it has grown into a strong faith. That faith that I have in my Savior and yours is very strong. I have had some very special experiences in prayer, in the temple, in life and each one has helped my faith to grow. I know that as you work to live like Jesus and try with all your heart to keep the commandments and be accountable when you don’t that your hope and faith can grow strong to. I have felt bad and had some really sad times to and I have felt my faith grow then as well. Jesus Christ will not leave us alone if we seek him out we will find him in good times and bad ones. He wants us to join with him and feel the joy and peace that come from being on the Lord’s side. You have chosen today to join the right team, the winning team. Today you make a very wise choice. I love you!

 Three future missionaries Baptized in the last year and a half. My son, my nephew and my grandson. Love these three sweet boys!!!

The Power of Missionary Work

Talk Given in Home Ward July 2015

We are missing a big brother at our house. But he isn’t really missing at all in some ways he is closer to us then ever.

Our missionary is doing well he has been out for 9 months. The language is not as challenging. He has enjoyed his companions so far and is now a senior companion. He has received his Dear John letter and handled that surprisingly well. It seems to us that Heavenly Father has been clear in letting us and him know that he is just where he should be doing just what he should be doing.

One of the fun reminders he has is an Elder who is serving in his mission. The Sosa Sisters were some of his Dad’s favorite people on his mission to Argentina. They accepted the Gospel and have remained in touch with our family. One of those sisters’ has a son that is the same age as Steve and is serving with him in the same mission. They are yet to be companions but have recently enjoyed beat boxing together. Their acquaintance is a wonderful reminder to both missionaries of the blessings that come from full time missionary service.

Brothers and Sisters the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and this is his church. I’m thankful today for the blessing of sharing with you some of the recent reminders and ways that my knowledge of this has been strengthened through the missionary service of my son in Chile.

In one of his first letters he wrote this:

And now on to the countless less actives I teach. By the way it doesn’t displease me that I’m teaching a lot of less actives here. The church in Chile isn’t like the church in Utah. It also isn’t like the rest of South American where a missionary can get 50+ baptisms in his whole mission. The Church is kind of weak for a lot of reasons. To demonstrate the ward I’m currently in, Lautaro, has 1,700 members. Our attendance is about 80ish. That’s also the worst percentage of attendance in the zone. So obviously there is a problem. And to fix it we have to reactivate the less actives we have, we have been progressing a lot too!

Jorge came to Church and brought a friend they stayed for all three hours. He hasn’t done that in 2-3 years. What makes it even better is the youth just got back from EFY (Especially For Youth Church Camp) so we got two young men in a room full of spiritually Juiced youth!

 

In this letter he talks about two other less active men he had been working with both return missionaries. One of them had a convert from his mission contact him and that was helping his receptiveness to the missionaries as well. I believe that as Elder Loertscher and his companion prayed for this man the power of their prayer reached the heart of that convert and motivated them to contact the missionary that had taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pres. Monson said, “As we love our God as we love our neighbor, we can be the recipients of our Heavenly Father’s love. Of all the blessings I have had in my life, one of the sweetest is that feeling the Lord provides when I know that he has answered the prayer of another person through me. As we love the Lord, as we love our neighbor, we discover that our Heavenly Father will answer the prayers of others through our ministry.

Recently our family has had some trauma. I am very close to my little sister we exercise together almost every day. Four months ago she got married and she and her husband just purchased a home up the road from us. He passed away suddenly. It came as a shock to us all. The night before the funeral one of Stephen’s best friends from high school (Felicia) came to our door. She said that she had just got a written letter from Steve in the mail and that she felt strongly that she should come over and share the letter with me. It was a letter full of scriptures. He said, I love this scripture and this is why and I love this scripture and this is why. I asked her if she knew what was going on with our family and told her about our loss. The first scripture that he shared in a letter that was a month old and not even written to me was from 3 Nephi and it said “Ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand” He wrote about how we don’t get to understand everything and that God has a plan and we need to trust the plan.

We don’t see the big picture we look up close at our lives like one single confusing piece of a puzzle that only makes sense to us. God has so much more material to reference and so many more pieces to use. This friend felt silly knocking on my door and saying, “here is a letter your son wrote me want to read it?” But she felt the spirit’s prompting and followed it and it was a comfort to me. Somewhere in the world a member felt inspired to reach out to the missionary that had taught them. They may never know that they were answering a prayer that two full time missionaries were praying for a member who needed reminding.

There are two big things that we can do to help the work of God progress. 1^st pray specifically for people by name and second work to develop sensitivity to the promptings of the spirit and follow them.

When it comes to the people in our lives who no longer gather with us in church or in our temples our concern is very intense at first and then we fall into a place of acceptance and the fervency of our concern fades. I think most would say that that is only natural and human. Natural and human, similarly, the natural Man and that natural man is an enemy to God.  As Latter Day Saints we seek to be followers of Christ, under shepherds who are seeking to bring sheep back to the fold. Prayer is the greatest tool we have. When used properly it leads to inspiration and direction. Missionaries learn this very intensely but we can too.

When Steve was 5 he gained two older siblings through the foster care program. We knew that these kids needed permanency because their mother had passed away. Steve has always been a very loving people person his capacity to love is very great. He really loved both of these kids. Jessica and Cameron are their names. As Adults both completely left the church. Jessica married a return missionary and convert from South Africa Xolani. He also has had no interest in Joining with us to worship. This is a heart ace we have grown used to. We would pray for them but not with the intensity we should, that natural man had lulled us into a comfortable acceptance of their choice. When Steve left on his mission it was a big deal for Jessica’s family especially for my oldest Grand son Devon who is 9. Devon was very proud of Steve and told his parents he wanted to serve a mission. Xolani put together a slide show of Steve growing up for me, and Jessica and her family came to church to hear Steve speak she hadn’t been to church in years. Steve told me in an e mail that Xolani would sometimes send a little thank you message back from his weekly Newsletters. Steve writes a group e mail each week and he always shares his testimony about something. Those e mails are a beautiful collection of his testimony on various subjects. Getting a little thank you ‘spark’ back from Xolani was a big deal. Xolani isn’t antagonistic and he has always been respectful and joined us for Family lessons about Easter and Christmas but has been pretty clear that going back to church was not going to happen.

Because Devon became such a fan of missionary Steve of course he began to express his desire to attend church. Jessica called me up one day and told me that she was going to take Devon. But miraculously the rest of the family ended up attending as well including Xolani this shocked Jessica and at first it shocked me to. What a pleasant surprise. When I wrote and told Steve he was ecstatic he said he had been praying intensely for them. Well he wasn’t the only one. We had a visit from the Elders a couple of months before this they issued our family a challenge to make a list of names of people who no longer attended Church, or were not members and the like. Then we were to pray for the people on the list. The promise was that we would see some kind of movement in someone toward living the Gospel. Of course Jessica and Xolani were on our list. Our family decided after taking this challenge that we would continue to keep a list.

Because of prayers offered by a missionary in Chile for a family in Utah and because of Elders serving in Utah who visited a family and asked them to take a challenge, the spirit was empowered. Prayers were heard and answered and it has been months now, Jessica’s family is attending church weekly. My testimony of full time missionary work has been strengthened, my testimony of prayer has been strengthened, and hearts that were once soft to the Spirit of Christ are returning.

In another of Steve’s letters he wrote about a 13 year old boy they were working with and I Quote:

“This week a 13 year old less active we have been working with for a while was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. We were super proud of him. But sadly (and I hope the kids are reading this part) he was crying after they announced his ordination because his parents are still inactive and don’t want to support him and his aunt and cousins weren’t there either. Only his uncle who we have been teaching him with (who is also the Elders Quorum president) and one of his cousins. He felt sad because he felt alone. Audrie, Sharp, Grace, Cael and Lily, you are all so blessed to have a mom and dad that support you in the gospel and want the best for you. Please don’t take them for granted and listen to them and heed there advice.”

The connection that we feel to our families is deep and can not be broken by time or distance. Families are ordained of God our callings as Parents, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, are the greatest callings we will ever hold. The power to save is in the family unit.

In March Steve ended one of my favorite newsletters with this:

“The spirit has been really strong in my life and I honestly love how much I can see the Lord helping and blessing me. You guys the Church is true. I would not deny it for any reason and I would just like to bear my testimony to you all that through the atonement we can all be made clean and be forgiven of our sins. God loves us and wants us to return to him and he will put people and things in our lives to help us find this path. All we have to do is open our eyes and look. I love you all. And I know that God loves you too. Continue in Faith. –Elder Loertscher